In the silver halide photographic light sensitive materials such as a direct appreciation type color print paper treated in a subtractive color system, the improvements of dye image qualities have been demanded more in recent years and, particularly, the improvements of the color reproduction, image sharpness and white background have been strongly demanded among the improvements of the image qualities.
Usually in the subtractive color systems and for forming yellow, magenta and cyan dye images, yellow couplers such as those of the acylacetamido type, magenta couplers such as those of the 5-pyrazolone type, pyrazoloazole type and pyrazolobenzimidazole type and cyan couplers such as those of the phenol type and naphthol type have been preferably used. Particularly among the couplers, each of the conventional yellow couplers has formed a dye having the maximum absorption wavelength of the positioned generally on the longer wavelength side from the wavelength for the absorption characteristics preferable from the viewpoint of the color reproduction. A yellow coupler has been disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication Open to Public Inspection (hereinafter referred to as JP OPI Publication) Nos. 63-123047/1988 and 63-231451/1988, in which the maximum absorption wavelength is shifted to the shorter wavelength side and the absorption in the longer wavelength side is sharpened.
On the other hand, the magenta couplers of the pyrazoloazole type and the cyan couplers of the phenol type are advantageous from the viewpoints of color reproduction.
When making combination use of the above-mentioned yellow, magenta and cyan couplers, the considerable improvements the hue can be observed in yellow, yellowish green, green, bluish green, orange, red and so forth. However, on the other hand, monochromatic yellow density is required to increase more than in the past because the visual yellow density is substantially low, though it is excellent for the yellow color reproduction. It has therefore been demanded for providing a silver halide color photographic light sensitive material advantageous for making the color forming property higher than before.
Relating a color forming property and a photosensitive speed, it has been known that the configurations, sizes and compositions of the silver halide grains of the silver halide emulsions applied to a light sensitive material influence greatly upon the development speeds and so forth. In particular, it has been known that the silver halide compositions greatly influence thereupon and a high development speed can be performed when making use of a highly chloride-containing silver halide.
When a development speed is increased, there may often be the instances where a fog density is eventually increased, and a variety of inhibitors have been applied as an antifoggant to light sensitive materials.
On the other hand, for the achievement of high image quality, it is one of the essential keys to improve the image sharpness. As for the sharpness improvement means, there has been a known method in which a silver halide photographic emulsion layer or other hydrophilic colloidal layer is colored with a dye capable of absorbing light having a specific wavelength so as to improve the optical properties of a support and to prevent a halation and an irradiation.
The dyes applicable to light sensitive materials are ordinarily used in embodiments and can play the roles as follows.
(1) In order to modify the spectral component of an incident light reaching a photographic emulsion layer or change the incident light quantity so that the sensitivity can be controlled, a colored layer is provided to the side of the photographic emulsion layer farther from the support of a light sensitive material so as to cut off any unnecessary light. Such a colored layer as mentioned above is called a filter layer and, when plural emulsion layers are provided, the filter layer may sometimes be interposed between one and the other emulsion layers.
(2) A colored layer is interposed between a photographic emulsion layer and a support or provided to the surface of the support opposite to the emulsion layer so as to prevent any image blur produced when the light transmitted through the emulsion layer are reflected on the interface between the emulsion layer and the support or reflected on the surface of the support opposite to the emulsion layer and the reflected light are then made incident again into the emulsion layer; that is to prevent any halation. Such a colored layer is called an antihalation layer. When plural emulsion layers are provided thereto, the antihalation layer may sometimes be interposed between one and the other emulsion layers.
(3) A photographic emulsion layer is colored for preventing any light scattering (generally called irradiation) produced by the silver halide grains contained in the photographic emulsion layer.
The dyes applicable with the above-mentioned purposes are to satisfy the following various requirements; the dyes are to display the spectral absorption characteristics capable of excellently meeting the purposes of application; the dyes are to be decolored completely in a photographic processing solution and readily dissolved out of the subject light sensitive material so that any residual color stains produced by the dyes can be eliminated after completing the treatments; the dyes are not to affect any spectrally sensitized photographic emulsions by any sensitization, desensitization or fog production; the dyes are to be excellent in aging stability and not to be faded, nor decolored in any processing solutions or a light sensitive material.
For the purpose of finding out the dyes capable of satisfying the above-mentioned requirements, many studies have been made and a variety of dyes have been proposed so far. For example, the oxonol dyes proposed in British Patent No. 506,385, U.S. Pat. No. 3.247.127, JP Examined Publication Nos. 39-22069/1964 and 43-13168/1968; the styryl dyes proposed typically in U.S. Pat. No. 1,845,404; the merocyanine dyes proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,493,747 and British Patent No. 1,542,807; the cyanine dyes proposed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,843,486 and 3,294,539; and the anthraquinone dyes proposed typically in U.S. Pat. No. 2,865,752.
Among the above-given dyes, oxonol type dyes and anthraquinone type dyes are comparatively few to adversely affect any photographic emulsions and, therefore, they have been preferably used in silver halide color photographic light sensitive materials for direct appreciation use.
The present inventors have variously studied of the above-mentioned dyes to discover the dyes which are advantageous for improving the image sharpness and are also capable of satisfying every one of the aforementioned requirements of which the dyes are to be completely decolored in a photographic processing solution, the dyes are to be readily dissolved out of a light sensitive material so that any residual color stains cannot be produced by the dyes after completing processing; any spectrally sensitized photographic emulsions are not to be affected by any sensitization, desensitization nor fog production; and the dyes are to be excellent in aging stability in any solutions or light sensitive materials.
Resultingly, the present inventors have discovered that the dyes each having a specific structure are capable of achieving the above-mentioned purposes.
However, when making use of the above-mentioned specific dyes in combination with a silver halide color photographic light sensitive material applied with the aforementioned highly chloride-containing silver halide and the aforementioned yellow coupler excellent in color reproduction, it has been proved that a problem of increasing fog is raised. A fog increase will lead to spoil background whiteness which is essential for making image quality higher. It has also been found that the deterioration of the white background will further become serious in a rapid processing treatment which has been strongly demanded in recent years, and in a low-replenishing treatment.
In the above-mentioned combination use, another new problem has been raised to increase the absorption in the long wavelength region exceeding 550 nm of a dye formed from a yellow coupler and then not to sharply decay to zero.
Therefore, the conventional techniques have been difficult to provide any silver halide color photographic light sensitive material capable of satisfying every requirement particularly for obtaining the excellent color reproduction and sufficiently high color density of a yellow dye, the image sharpness and the white background property.